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Wayne State names new dean of business school

Robert Forsythe, a former dean of the business school at the University of South Florida, has been appointed dean of the Wayne State University School of Business Administration.

The appointment is effective July 21.

Forsythe, 64, was dean of the College of Business at USF from 2006 to 2012. There, he launched several student-centered initiatives.

Previously, he was the Leonard A. Hadley Chair in Leadership and senior associate dean at the Tippie College of Business at the University of Iowa from 1994 to 2006. While in Iowa, he co-founded the Iowa Electronic Markets, a futures market for online trading in contracts on political and economic events, according to a news release.

He also previously taught at the California Institute of Technology.

“He impressed a large number of us,” WSU Provost Margaret E. Winters told Crain’s. “He’s going to be a real addition to where Wayne State sits in the community.”

Forsythe earned a Ph.D. in economics and a master’s degree in economics and statistics from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. He also earned a bachelor’s in quantitative business analysis from Pennsylvania State University.

Forsythe succeeds interim dean Margaret Williams, who was appointed to the position in 2011 when David Williams stepped down.

Winters said it is unusual for a dean’s search to take several years, but said the business school search was overshadowed in part by the university’s presidential search last year. M. Roy Wilson became president of Wayne State on Aug. 1, 2013.